Mating flanges that have been tightly secured together have historically posed difficulties in their disassembly. Typically, mating flanges having a plurality of aligned openings for receiving bolts and the like, after being tightly assembled for periods of time, pose service difficulties in the bolt removal-flange separation process. Some systems are of a construction too light to handle the necessary loads for separating the joined flanges when release is desired, while others provide no support or alignment capabilities during the separating phase of the mating flange portions.
Efforts have been made to separate various types of flanges and include those such as taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,707,870; 1,852,521; 2,393,795; 2,654,569; 3,711,920; and 3,997,957. Some devices of the prior art such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,373, teach the use of devices which can be used both as a flange bolt and as a flange spreader. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,324 discloses a device for separating flange pipes using a cammed, threaded bolt arrangement. Other types of devices have included those wherein one of the mating faces of a pair of flanges has a threaded opening machined therein to receive a threaded member, not aligned with the openings for fastening the flange together. This threaded opening permits a threaded bolt to engage a nut mounted in a countersunk opening formed in the mating flange face for use in separating the mating flange members.
However, so far as known, no flange separating device that remains in service as a fastener for the flange, serves double duty as a jack bolt for separating the flange members, while providing both support and alignment of the flanges while the separating flanges are forced apart. The support and alignment of the flanges during the separation of the mating flanges is important to prevent twisting and slipping of opposing flange faces with respect to one another while reducing the risk of damage to the flange yet requiring a minimum of tools and time to accomplish same.